I do feel like it could've been better. Specifically the areas you mentions the forgotten vale and the soul cairn could've been much more interesting and they hardly did anything with those areas other than the main quest. I wanted some side quests. I wanted to actually meet and talk to the Ideal masters and visit the Coffin Chapel and the Chapel of Love in the soul cairn. I also feel as if the "overhaul" on the vampires could have been MUCH better (My vampiric drains still svcks, I can't have thralls etc.).
-Sigh- I think that sometimes. There's a mod that fixes Serana nerfing your VL powers already. There's also mods that improve the VL's powers. The VL is a welcome addition but I feel as if Bethesda should of improved the base vampire form. Give vampires some neat spells that you don't already have. Blood of the ancients is cool but is only useful for the VL form and not the base vampire form. Maybe I've been spoiled by looking at some of the mods for vampire overhauls and then I see what we got in dawnguard and think this is all bethesda can come up with? I still enjoyed dawnguard but I feel as if they could have done much better.
-Sigh- I think that sometimes. There's a mod that fixes Serana nerfing your VL powers already. There's also mods that improve the VL's powers. The VL is a welcome addition but I feel as if Bethesda should of improved the base vampire form. Give vampires some neat spells that you don't already have. Blood of the ancients is cool but is only useful for the VL form and not the base vampire form. Maybe I've been spoiled by looking at some of the mods for vampire overhauls and then I see what we got in dawnguard and think this is all bethesda can come up with? I still enjoyed dawnguard but I feel as if they could have done much better.
He puts in a perk for everyone if you are blocking in base form you summon a cloud of bats that drain health from enemies around you, your bound weapons now steal health from people you hit it with, your enhancements that drain magicka, hp and stamina is now 25% stronger another perk when attacking an enemy in melee at night you have 25% chance to cause fear on them. He even has stuff there for stealth characters.
Take a look.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=88281218&searchtext=
Plus many more as my brother said it seems like bethesda is relying on modders to add/fix things for them but here is the problem people play on the consoles are stuck with lackluster features and bugs. Its the reason why I went from ps3 to PC.